Departmental Colloquium
Brad Efron
Stanford University
Learning from the experience of others
Abstract: Familiar statistical estimates such as batting averages, political polls, and medical trial results are obtained by direct observation of cases of
interest. Sometimes, though, we can learn from the experience of "others": for instance there may be information about Player A's
batting ability in the observed averages of Players B,C,D,... I will present several examples showing how this
works in practice, indicating some of the surprising theoretical ideas involved. The talk is mainly descriptive in nature, and is
intended for a general scientific audience.
Thursday November 20, 2008 at 2:00 PM in LC A1